Justin & Meredith Winokur's Kitchen Cooking Notebook
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KitchenKatalog: Blog 305
Tuesday, August 14, 2012, 11:40 AM
I made hamburgers with a bunch of different seasonings. I do not even remember what I used but I know there was rosemary, onion powder, garlic powder, some Montreal Chicken Seasoning and probably some salt. They came out a bit dry but that is not too surprising since a) I tend to overcook hamburgers no matter what and b) I used extra lean beef. I need to work on making them bigger and thinner but it is hard to form them that way. I'll look into it.
I also had edamame.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 2204, 2012-08-14_114009
Monday, August 13, 2012, 10:09 PM
As I have done a few times before, I baked some frozen tilapia and frozen shrimp with salsa on top. Despite doing the same amount of time as before (350 for 30), the tilapia wasn't fully cooked. So, I microwaved it for a bit and it exploded everywhere. Oh well, it was still pretty good.
I used a really, really, really hot salsa from the farmers market. OUCH! It was intense
I also roasted broccoli. Nothing special but it was very good.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 2201, 2012-08-13_220936
Sunday, August 12, 2012, 08:38 PM
Grilling FAILURE. I tried to grill again. It didn't go as well as last time, which says a lot since it didn't go very well then either. It took three tries to get the light I think I needed to pack it tighter. I also used more coals to get it to be hotter and hopefully stay lit longer.
Well, it started off really hot. I let the grill get a bit warmer, cleaned it, then put the chicken and eggplant on it. I used chicken thighs since it is hard to overcook them. Well, five minutes later, they were barely cooked. The grill went out again. I had the lower vent open so that wasn't the issue.
Anyway, I had to go to plan B. I fired up the broiler for the eggplant and the grill pan for the chicken. I am glad I used thighs since they should have been overcooked by this point but they held up well. Even though I thoroughly trimmed the fat off. I guess the meat itself is fattier.
I had marinated them in a Red Wine Dijon marinate I bought premade.
They turned out fine as did the eggplant, but no thanks to the grill. I guess I need to learn more about how to use a charcoal grill. I just am not getting it so far.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 2196, 2012-08-12_203820
Friday, August 10, 2012, 07:43 PM
Meredith was here so we tried a bunch of new things for dinner. It was the first time I have ever grilled with charcoal (and I have barely grilled before) and it was my first time shucking oysters.
We bought chesapeake oysters at Whole Foods. We watched a few different videos on how to shuck them. We had a bit of trouble but for the most part, we were able to open them without spilling too much liquid and/or getting too many shells and sand in them. We served them on ice (or sorts) and with cocktail sauce and lemon. We ate them raw and survived to tell the tale. Pictured are only 6 but we bought 12.
And then there was the grilling! I have read a few things on how to work with charcoal but we decided to play it safe and cook hotdogs since they are safe and already cooked.
Well, the grill started out well. It lite like I had expected though I guess it took a bit long. I dumped the coal and started cooking. When I flipped them, they were cooked but the grill felt kind of cool. Everything was cooked well, but the next batch of hot dogs didn't work too well. I had to cook them on the grill pan. I do not know why it went out so quickly but again, thankfully they were precooked so there was no real risk.
As you can see from the picture, we also tried spiral cutting them. See this video for more info on them. However, the hotdogs were really thin since they were the really low fat. I used a steeper angle to not go as deep.
Oh, as we split a french baguette lengthwise to have good bread with them.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 2191, 2012-08-10_194356
Wednesday, August 08, 2012, 07:41 PM
I made the roasted veggie and chicken sausage thing with italian chicken sausage. It was pretty good though I went light on the potatoes to save some calories. I liked it a lot but I think I preferred it with other types of sausage. I used artichokes, onions,potatoes and a bit of sweet potatoes.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 2187, 2012-08-08_194100
Monday, August 06, 2012, 08:33 PM
I made the pretty standard taco stew. Really nothing notable at this point. I made it so many times in the past. I also made butter nut squash. I cooked it at 425 for 20 minutes, flipped it and then for another 15-20 minutes.
The points are
Beef...11
Corn...4
Beef...8.5
--------------------
Assume the whole thing was 24. There was about 2.5 servings.
So say 15 for tonight and 10 for lunch.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 2178, 2012-08-06_203329
Sunday, August 05, 2012, 08:29 PM
I made spaghetti squash with tomato sauce. I wanted something pretty easy and really low in points. I made a tomato sauce the pretty normal way with onions and a bunch of seasonings, just like last time. The only thing I did differently was no oil and I put a can of chick peas giving the only real points in the meal at around 10. Maybe add 2 for whatever incidentals.
I thought I took a photo but I couldn't find it.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 2175, 2012-08-05_202952
Thursday, August 02, 2012, 11:46 AM
I wasn't looking for a huge meal so I made this. I was at Whole Foods where they were sampling fried pickles. They used a special breading mix and didn't use an egg wash. Instead, they relied on the water of the pickles. I decided to try this but with regular bread crumbs. I dried the pickles first so they weren't soaked and that may have been the problem. Not a huge amount of bread crumbs stayed on (except the one in the forefront of the picture). The good thing is that it saved calories, but more would have been better. I liked the ease of no egg wash, but next time, I will not try to get off as much water. They were still very good but tasted more of hot pickles than hot "fried" pickles. I baked them at 450 for 10 minutes, flipped them and then another 5.
I also made an open-faced hummus, cucumber and pepper sandwich. I toasted a whole wheat roll, and put down half a Laughing cow. Then I put on sliced cucumber, then low point horseradish hummus (2 tbsp for one point, from Trader Joes), then sliced sweet peppers. The sandwich was pretty good, but I should have not done open-face. It would have been easier to eat and I think I would have liked it more.
A lot of cucumbers in this meal, but it was good.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 2170, 2012-08-02_114641